Sweet Potato Casserole

I really like the holidays.  One of the things that I love are the potlucks - not only do we get to enjoy the company of friends, but we also have the opportunity to try out some new recipes.  When I am making a full meal for my family, I have to streamline because I am balancing a variety of different dishes, but when I am only contributing one dish to a meal, I can pour in more time and energy than usual.  Tonight I made something worth recording for the generations to come: this delicious Sweet Potato Casserole.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients

4 or 5 large sweet potatoes

1/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons butter, softened

3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Place potatoes on a cookie sheet and slide onto the middle rack.  Bake the sweet potatoes for 1 hour, or until the potatoes are fork tender.  Pull out the potatoes, turn down the oven to 350 degrees F and allow potatoes to cool.  

2. Being very careful with the warm potatoes, slice them down the middle length-wise and scrape the soft insides into a large bowl.  If they are cooked well, they will fall right out of the skins.  Mash potatoes and then mash in the sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish, or a casserole dish.

3. In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour.  Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse.  Stir in the pecans.  Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

* Note: The casserole can be made the night before, put in the fridge, and then baked prior to eating.  Just let it sit for a few minutes to bring the dish closer to room temperature before placing in the oven, and add a few minutes extra onto the cooking time.

Makes 6-8 servings.